Should Small Businesses Use Twitter?

The quick answer is yes –  if you see a positive return from the time and effort required to maintain a Twitter presence.  Having said that, we believe the answer will be no for most small businesses. 

The reason is simple.  A very small percentage of adult Americans are regular users of Twitter. 

A recent Pew Internet study reports that about 8% of online, adult Americans use Twitter.  Only about 75% of Americans are online, which means about 6% of all adult Americans use Twitter.

As the chart below from Pew shows, about 36% of all Twitter users check the site on a daily basis or multiple times per day.  About half check infrequently or never.

The obvious conclusion from this data is about 3% of adult Americans are active Twitter users who check the site at least once per week.  If your business serves this group, Twitter will likely be a good way to interact with your customers.

But if your small business serves a subset of the 97% of Americans who don’t use Twitter on a regular basis, or the 94% that don’t use Twitter at all, it’s probably not going to be a good way to interact with your customers.

  I’m starting to feel like a social media Scrooge by pointing out data like this. 

Social Media, including Twitter, can be a powerful and valuable tool for small businesses.  We strongly recommend small businesses experiment with, test and evaluate multiple forms of social media (blogging, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.). 

But we also recommend small businesses do this with a focus on ROI and fully measure the time and expense required to maintain a social media presence.  Understand the benefits and make sure they are worth the investment required. 

Like any tool, if social media works use it.  If it doesn’t work, don’t let the hype and coolness associated with social media sway you into using it.